The Newsletter of the Highlights Inside Calvert Marine Museum • Great White Shark and Northem • Smallest Fossil Mammal from Fossil Club Right Whale Calvert Cliffs Volume 20· Number 1 • Bear-Dogs • Upcoming Field Trips March 2005 • Volunteers of the Year! • Upcoming Lectures Whole Number 66
The ECp·0
Upcoming Paleontology Great White and Northern Right
Public Lectures Many of the Miocene-age (20 - 8 million• year-old) whale and dolphin fossils that we collect Anna J. Fuller, Paleontology from Calvert Cliffs, Calvert County, Maryland are Research Intern here at the Calvert Marine shark-tooth-marked, evidence of prehistoric predation or scavenging. Fossilized bones have also Museum will be our guest lecturer on been found in which the tips of broken shark teeth Saturday, April 23rd, 2005. She will deliver a are still imbedded. Evidently, prehistoric cetotheres ·~ublic lecture beginning at 2:30pm in the (an entirely extinct family of filter-feeding whales) jluseum's auditorium on the fossil beaked were prized as prey among Miocene sharks. whales from Calvert Cliffs. It is well known that living sharks scavenge whale carcasses, as you will see in the following And photographs. I was saddened to learn that this right whale was well known to many through the work of The New England Aquarium's (NEAq) right whale Saturday, June 11th, 2005 is the day the aerial survey team. Calvert Marine Museum celebrates World Ocean Day. In addition to the events planned by our Education Department, we will open a new exhibit on the Miocene fossil whale skull that we quarried from St. Mary's County following Hurricane Isabel. We will not have a formal club meeting, however, we will host a public lecture. Dr. Lawrence Barnes, from the Los Angeles County Museum will be our guest lecturer. He is a A great white shark circles a dead northern right whale that is floating belly up. The head-end of the leading authority on fossil whales and will shark is lo~ated at the base of the whale's right speak on the extinct cetotheres (i.e., a family flipper. Photo by Jessica TaylorlNew England ~f extinct filter-feeding whales). Aquarium, January 12, 2005, off the coast of Florida. 2 The Ecphora March 2005
Editor's note: The following information on the wounds sustained from the ship strike in 1991 had northern right whale was taken from correspondence opened and become infected, possibly due to he with Monica Zani (New England Aquarium), and pregnancy. from their Right Whale Research News (Volume 13, For more information on the efforts of the Number 2, Jan. 2005). New England Aquarium to help right whales, visit their web site at: www.newenglandaquarium.org The New England Aquarium's (NEAq) Many thanks to Gregory R. Fairclough, right whale aerial survey team sighted the dead right NOAA Fisheries HMS Division, Saint Petersburg, whale while conducting a standard, daily Early FL for sending the first images of the whale to us. I Warning System (EWS) survey. The primary am mostly indebted to Monica Zani, Assistant objective of these surveys is to locate right whales on Scientist, New England Aquarium, Right Whale their winter calving grounds and report the position Research, for sending the story to us and for in near real time to mariners operating commercial, permission to publish these amazing photographs. military, and other vessels in the area in an attempt to reduce the potential threat of ship collisions to Stephen Godfrey V right whales. As a secondary objective to the work, aerial survey teams photograph each right whale sighted and gather data that will serve as a source of information on the distribution and abundance of Calvert Marine Museum right whales in the calving ground. Volunteers of the Year ...
Paleontology volunteers have done exceedingly well this year in that they have received both the Individual and Group Achievemen awards! Pam Platt and Paul Berry are co• recipients of the Calvert Marine Museum's Individual Volunteer-of-the- Year Award. Pam Platt toiled tirelessly on the very difficult preparation work needed to expose the whale skull that we quarried from St. Mary's County following Hurricane Isabel. In addition to everything else Paul Berry does for the Museum (librarian and editor of the Bugeye Times), he also contributes many hours in helping with the cataloging of our paleontology A slightly different view of a great white shark research library! feeding on a dead northern right whale that is The Group Achievement Award went to floating belly up. Photo by Jessica Taylor/New volunteer members of our fossil preparation lab! I England Aquarium, January 12, 2005, off the coast am indebted to all o~r prep lab volunteers for of Florida. without your ongoing efforts, many of the fossils we collect would not' have been prepared. Shortly after her birth in 1991, this northern Congratulations on receiving these awards in right whale was spotted with large propeller cuts recognition of your significant contribution to the along her left flank. She was named Lucky (#2143) Museum an~ our department! because she survived the trauma of a ship strike. Unfortunately, when she was found dead earlier this Stephen Godfrey V year, she was pregnant with her first, near full term, female calf. The right whale aerial survey team moved the carcass to shore and performed a necropsy (an animal autopsy). They found that the Club website: http://www.calvertmarinemuseum.com/cmmfc/index.html Club email: [email protected] 3 The Ecphora March 2005
Bear-Dogs paleontologist there, showed me a bear-dog canine that was very impressive. It's about 2 inches long and I inch wide at its base, compressed laterally George F. Klein (side to side), and re-curved with cutting edges on the front and rear of the tooth. It looked like Bear-dogs were a group of carnivorous tyrannosaur teeth I have collected in Montana , mammals that existed in our area during the Tertiary except the cutting edges on tyrannosaur_teeth are Period. They're called bear-dogs because they have serrated whereas the cutting edges on the bear-dog some characteristics of both bears and dogs. From an tooth are not. evolutionary standpoint, they are more closely related to bears than dogs but retain features of both these animals.
Bear-dog tooth (Amphicynodon sp.), second from left, along with three ?Albertosaurus sp. teeth from the Judith River Formation, found in Phillips County, Montana. Scale Bar is in inches. Photo by George Klein.
The formations around the Calvert Cliffs area Skeletal reconstructions of (A) the bear-dog, are marine in nature, but fossils of terrestrial animals are found there. All land mammal material from the Amphicyon ingens, and (B) a modern polar bear Ursus arctos, drawn to approximately the same Cliffs is extremely rare and scientifically valuable. scale. (A) Is from Dingus, L. 1996. Next of Kin: This is because terrestrial Miocene exposures are Great Fossils at the American Museum of Natural virtually unknown in the northeastern US. Therefore, History. New York: Rizzoli International any such fossils give us a glimpse of what life was Publications, Inc. and (B) isfrom Turner, A. and M like on land in our area during this period. Anton, 1997. The Big Cats and Their Fossil My research indicates that the earliest bear• Relatives: An Illustrated Guide to Their Evolution dog fossils date to the mid-Eocene (approximately and Natural History. New York: Columbia 44 MYBP) and are from North America (1). Some University Press. bear-dog fossils have been found in Eurasia and date slightly later, so a Eurasian ancestry is not My interest in this group of animals began completely out of the question. By the Miocene, they last summer when I was at the Calvert Marine were distributed throughout Eurasia and North Museum in Solomons, Maryland. The Museum America. They are especially well known from showcases fossils from the Calvert Cliffs Miocene Florida where at least three genera have been -----.. ' age. The Miocene Epoch lasted from reported: Amphicyon, Daphoenodon, and Cynelos approximately 23.8 to 5.3 million years before the (2). Of these, Amphicyon (whose name means present (MYBP). Bill Counterman, the "ambiguous dog") was probably the largest and may have been the largest predator of its time (3). It most Club website: http://www.calvertmarinemuseum.com/cmmfc/index.html Club email: [email protected] 4 The Ecphora March 2005
likely was an ambush hunter and about the size of 3)www.amnh.org/exhibitions/expeditions/treasure f today's grizzly bear. ossil/F ossils/Specimens/ amphicyon-ramoceros.html ----- Bear-dogs were medium to large size predators. One large European species, Amphicyon 4) Wroe, S. et al Australian Journal o/Zoology Vol. major, is estimated to have a body length around 5 to 47, p. 489 - 498 (1999) 6 feet and a weight approaching 1400 lbs (4). Not all bear-dogs were this large some were much smaller. 5)http://www2 .nature.nps. gov/ geology/paleonto logy/ Some of the "bear-like" features that they pub/grd2/gsaOI.htm have are a shorter snout and for some bear-dogs, a plantigrade walk. Today's bears put most of their weight on the heels of their feet whereas today's George Klein P dogs walk digitigrade, with most of their weight on their toes. Digitigrade striding enables an animal to run faster, because it effectively lengthens the lower Martian Fossil Crinoid? leg permitting a longer step. Fossil footprints show that some bear-dogs also walked like a bear in a The author(s) of the following story claims "pacing" style, moving the two left legs and the two that images shot by the Martian Lander Spirit show right legs alternately, although at a somewhat slower evidence of Martian crinoid (sea Lilly) fossils. stride (3). Other bear-dogs show "dog-like" features http://www.xenotechresearch.com/spicrinl.htm such as walking digitigrade and having a longer tail. Like today's canines, at least some bear-dogs lived Editors note: The Martian fossil sea Lilly in burrows or dens. Fossil bear-dog burrows have been uncovered in Nebraska with fossil skeletons of 'discovery' reminds me of the kinds of stories where~ people find the 'likeness' of Jesus on a piece of burr. the makers (Daphoenodon) inside them (5). The toast or in a dirt smudge on the floor. Bruce animals are believed to have died during a prolonged Hargreaves is to be thanked for this chuckle. drought and the dens filled in with volcanic ash and sand carried in by wind and water. The filled-in dens are the largest vertebrate burrows yet reported in the fossil record, with diameters of 3 to 6.5 feet and lengths of over 30 feet! Earthquakes ... There's a spectacular display in the Fossil Mammal Halls in the American Museum of Natural For those of you who have an interest in History. It shows the fossil skeletons of the bear-dog earthquakes, Paul Murdoch sent in the following Amphicyon in pursuit of an early pronghorn information: antelope, Ramoceros. The antelope is leaping to avoid the grasp of the bear-dog. The power of this Go to http://earthquake.usgs.gov then select latest extinct predator is evident from this display. It's one quake tab (top Left). Go down the left side of the of my favorite exhibits in the Museum. page and select Past & Historical Earthquakes. Then select at top of page USA - by state... Then References under Earthquake History, select Maryland. Then at the third item down, select last earthquake in I) Zhai, R. et al Acta Palaeontol. Pol. Vol. 48, No.2 Maryland. p. 293 - 300 (2003)
2)http://paleoenterprises.com/Miocene5Beardogs2 .ht m
Club website: http://www.calvertmarinemuseum.com/cmmfc/index.htrnl Club email: [email protected] 5 The Ecphora March 2005
Fascinating Fossil Finds Smallest Fossil Mammal from Calvert Cliffs
The process of fossilization acts in many ways like a filter. Not all organisms fossilize equally well. Those with hard parts, like bones or shells, are much more likely to become fossilized than worms or jellyfish. Furthermore, those animals that live in a marine environment are more likely to become fossilized than are terrestrial animals. Sediments carried into the ocean can cover the remains of animals that lived there. Therefore, small terrestrial animals are at a distinct disadvantage when it comes First small mammal vertebra collected from Calvert to their chances of becoming a part of the fossil Cliffs? This tiny lumbar vertebra, seen here in record. dorsal view, was recently collected by Bill For over 100 years, many remarkable fossils Counterman from the St. Marys Formation. Scale have been collected from Calvert Cliffs. However, bar divisions are in millimeters. Scan by S. Godfrey. until very recently, no fossilized bones from a terrestrial mammal smaller than a dog (Tomarctus There have to be more out there, so keep ~s-t).)had ever been found. In addition to which, we your eyes peeled and you might find more of this lOW nothing of the amphibians, lizards, snakes, and critter, or the next smallest terrestrial mammal. small perching birds that were living in southern Maryland during the Miocene. Understanding that William Counterman. and Stephen Godfrey P. the process of fossilization is very discriminating, we do not conclude that because small terrestrial animals have not been found in Calvert Cliffs that there weren't any living in southern Maryland's Small Fossil Rodent Tooth from prehistoric forests. Instead, we rightly assume that Scientists Cliffs there was a rich and divers assemblage of small terrestrial animals (as there is today), but because of Last November, Pam Platt found a small their small size and the environment in which they lived, they were very unlikely to drift out to sea rodent incisor on the beach at Scientists Cliffs (see (bloat and float) and then become entombed on the photo below). In comparing it with modem rodent bottom of the Miocene Atlantic Ocean. teeth in our comparative osteology collection, it was That has now changed with the discovery of found to be indistinguishable from the right upper incisor of an eastern gray squirrel, Sciurus a single tiny lumbar (i.e., 'lower' back) vertebra carolinensis. The tooth gives every indication that it from a squirrel-size mammal (see the following is fossilized. Unfortunately, since the tooth was not photograph). The vertebra, which was collected in found in situ, it is difficult to known where it situ, measures only 3/Sth of an inch in total length and is very similar to the lumbar vertebra of a originated. Perhaps further study and testing will provide a definitive answer. modem blacktail prairie dog. We don't want to --imply that blacktai1 prairie dogs were living in mthern Maryland during the Miocene epoch, but clearly small prairie dog sized mammals were in the area.
Club website: http://www.calvertmarinemuseum.com/cmmfc/index.html Club email: [email protected] 6 The Ecphora March 2005
photo. Notice how a series of tubules radiate from the base of each tooth upwards towards its crushin' surface . .p.
Aetomylaeus sp. at Carmel Church
The right upper incisor of a modern eastern gray squirrel, Sciurus carolinensis (left) and a fossilized rodent tooth (right) beach collected by Pam Platt Dr. Alton Dooley, Assistant Curator of Paleontology from Calvert Cliffs. Scale bar is in millimeters. Virginia Museum of Natural History (VMNH), Scan by S. Godfrey . .p. completely prepared and reconstructed the ray plate found by Arthur Speth on a VMNH field trip tl~ Carmel Church last fall. It turns out to be one of the Stingray Dental Plate in Section most complete specimens of its size ever found in the Calvert Formation. The VMNH has tentatively identified it as representing the genus Aetomylaeus, a genus that had not previously been recognized at Carmel Church. Many thanks to Jeff Sparks for bringing this lovely fossil find to my attention. Many thanks to Arthur Speth and Dr. Alton Dooley for permission to include this lovely find in The Ecphora. Photo by Dr. Alton Dooley. .p. Correction:
A sagittal section through a fossilized stingray In the last l~sue of The Ecphora, I dental plate (partial) belonging to Ian Lewis. commented on ... Notice the arching tubules within each fused tooth segment. The scale bar is in inches. Scan by S. A Fossil-Coral-Collecting Plant? Godfrey. Club member, Dave Bohaska kindly informed me that the coral was probably not Astrhelia palmata, Recently, Ian Lewis found a pIece of the well-known Miocene coral. Rather, the coral stingray dental plate at Flag Ponds. His find (see photo below) was more than likely modem, a tweaked my interest because it was broken in cross• representative of the single species of stony coral section, such that the internal architecture of the the star coral, that is presently found in th\. teeth could be seen. In the following photograph, the Chesapeake Bay. Astrangia astreiformis is a crushing surface of the tooth is at the top of the Club website: http://www.calvertmarinemuseum.com/cmmfc/index.html Club email: [email protected] 7 The Ecphora March 2005
common cold-water coral distributed all along the Whale Watching ... tlantic coast as far north as Cape Cod! During the month of February, CMMFC member, Pam Platt thoroughly enjoyed a Lindblad Expedition to whale and nature watch in and along the Sea of Cortez, Baja California. Each winter gray whales migrate south from their arctic feeding grounds to breed and rear their young in Baja California's sheltered lagoons. In addition to the whales, she saw dolphins, sea lions, birds such as blue-footed boobies and frigate birds, huge cardon cacti, mangroves, and sand dunes galore. The following photographs show how close she was able to view and even touch these magnificent whales in their natural habitat.
Two pieces of modern coral, probably Astrangia Mother and baby gray whales in the Sea of Cortez. astreiformis, held together by the roots and branches Photo by P. Platt. of a modern aquatic plant. Donated by Charles Kraft. Photo by S. Godfrey.
Ya learn something new every day! I did not know that there is a stony coral species living in the Chesapeake Bay. Notice how closely packed the polyp cups are as compared to those in the Miocene fossil coral Astrhelia palmata. Many thanks to Dave Bohaska for bringing this mistake to my attention! We will all learn more and learn it faster if we share information.
Reference
Lippson, A.J. and R.L. Lippson. 1984. Life in the Mother and baby gray whales in the Sea of Cortez. ~ Chesapeake Bay. Johns Hopkins University Photo by P. Platt. Press. Stephen Godfrey U
Club website: http://www.calvertmannemuseum.com/cmmfc/index.html Club email: [email protected] 8 The Ecphora March 2005
UPCOMING FIELD TRIPS 2662 or [email protected]). Site information will be emailed to members who sign up by the wee1 • AND EVENTS before. The Red Hill site contains Devonian marine and terrestrial fossils (fish, amphibian and plant). Collection is by hammer and chisel almost Please remember to call in for yourself and family exclusively. members, or for another club member, on the date and time indicated. Current memberships in both the fossil club and the Calvert Marine Museum are June 11t\ and li\ Saturday and Sunday. Fossil needed to go on the trips. Information on directions, Club Field Trip to New York State (Albany to lodging, meeting times and meeting places will be Utica). provided at the call-in. Fossil and mineral collecting, including Pre Cambrian - Devonian material, Oriskany sandstone brachiopods (some with internal structure), tentaculites, brittle stars, trilobites in black shale, April 17t\ Sunday. PCS Phosphate Mine ("Lee Creek") in Aurora, NC. crinoids) and Herkimer diamond dig (fee). A diversity of Miocene vertebrate and invertebrate Additional stops to observe stromatolites (no material with abundant shark, whale, porpoise, turtle, collecting), fossils forming (ground snails held in fish, and mollusk specimens can be found. The giant place as calcite precipitates on them), glacial and highly prized Carcharocles megalodon shark geology [Little Falls pot holes], river piracy teeth, and relatively rare bramble (Echinorhinus [Mohawk/Oneida], Clinton iron ore (hematite iron blakei), whale (Rhincodon sp.) and false mako ore with oolites), Chenango Canal lock, and Erie (Parotodus benedeni) teeth, and seal, walrus, Canal lock. The last site will be optional: Howes Squalodon, and sea cow material have turned up on Cave in Cobleskill (fee). Call in on Tuesda'- rare occasions. Hard hats, steel-toe boots, sleeved evening, May 24, from 6:30-8:30, to Kathy at 410• shirts, long pants, and photo ill are required. Limit 549-4701. [Please note: Ifthere is no answer during 15. the call-in, the line is "likely in use but has no busy Call-in Tuesday evening, AprilS, from 6:30-8:30, to signal; leave a message or call back after a brief Kathy at 410-549-4701. [Please note: If there is no wait.] answer during the call-in, the line is likely in use but has no busy signal; leave a message or call back after Detailed Itinerary (Tentative): a brief wait.] • Trip leader, Dick Staley Pre Cambrian - Devonian
April 23rd, Saturday. Club Meeting @ 12:30 pm, • Abundant fossils, glacial geology [Little Falls pot and Public Lecture. Anna J. Fuller, Paleontology holes], river piracy [Mohawk/Oneida], Herkimer Research Intern at the Calvert Marine Museum will diamonds, Clinton iron ore, Chenango Canal lock, Erie Canallock. .. deliver a public lecture beginning at 2:30pm in the Museum's auditorium entitled Miocene Fossil • Driving distance via 181, 188 about 460 miles; Beaked Whales from Calvert Cliffs. Via Bay Bridge, Delaware R. Bridge, 1295, NJ TPK, NY Thruway about 400 miles
April 30th and May 1st, 2005, Saturday and DAY 1 Sunday. Trip to Red Hill and Swopes, PA. • Meet at 8 AM, Saturday, June 11 at convenience Trip open to members of MGS, DMS, AFF and store at intersection of county NY396 & US9W, CMM. Saturday we will access the Red Hill site. Selkirk near NY Thruway, 187, exit 22 Sunday we will go to Swopes from the Red Hill site. No limit to number of attendees. MGS members • South BetWehem, outcrop on side road off NY30 1 • stromatolites - no collecting need to sign up either at club meetings or by phoning • John Boyd Thacher State Park, walk escarpment • or emailing David Andersen at any time (301-869- no collecting Club website: http://www.calvertmarinemuseum.com/cmmfc/index.html Club email: [email protected] 9 The Ecphora March 2005
• Knox, quarry in Oriskany ss, abundant brachiopods NONCMMFC FIELD TRIPS me w/intemal structure - collecting - private • Gallupville, outcrop along NY 443, abundant AND EVENTS tentaculites, occasional brittle star - collecting • Canajoharie, walk in park in rock streambed, very The Virginia Museum of Natural History usually large diameter potholes - no collecting offers numerous fossil field trips each year, • S1. Johnsville, outcrop along road, trilobites in including trips to private sites and their Carmel black shale - collecting Church quarry research site where two new species • Fonda, Herkimer diamond dig in private quarry • of marine mammals have been found. Their trip fee schedule is posted on the museum's website at: • Little Falls, Erie Canal lock, modem lock - 7th http://www.vmnh.netlindex.cfm ?pg=285 largest in world, 30-foot deep potholes caused by The current schedule is as follows: drainage of glacial lake cutting a new course with the Mohawk R. pirating the Oneida R. - no collecting April15-17 Maysville, KY • Herkimer - over night April 30 Martin-Marietta Carmel Church Quarry/Lt. Run DAY 2 May 14 Chippokes Plantation State • Meet at 8 AM, Sunday, June 12 at Herkimer Motel ParkiChuckatuck Quarry parking lot June 11 Stratford Cliffs/Westmoreland State • Ilion gorge, fossils forming - ground snails held in Park place as calcite precipitates on them from the July 8 Matoaka Cottage seepage of ground water rich in calcium ... August 13 James River Boat Trip • Paris, large abandoned quarry, crinoid stems • September 10 Stratford CliffslW estmoreland State ----)llecting Park Clinton, hematite iron ore with oolites - collecting • Oriskany Falls, Chenango Canal lock along road Their trips are filled on a first-come, first-served • Madison, road metal pit - many species of shelled basis. Some trips have limits on the number of fossils in black shale, very fragile - collecting participants. Fees are used to support research at • Howes Cave, Cobleskill - optional stop - fee VMNH. Fees do not include accommodations, meals, transportation, or park entry fees. To make a June 11th, Saturday, World Ocean Day at the reservation, send a message to [email protected] Calvert Marine Museum. In addition to the events with the subject "Field Trip". Tell which trip you are planned by our Education Department, we will open interested in, and how many adults and children will a new exhibit on the Miocene fossil whale skull that be attending, or call 276-666-8644. To make a we quarried from S1. Mary's County following donation, mail a check payable to VMNH Field Hurricane Isabel. We will not have a formal club Trips to: meeting, however, we will host a public lecture. Dr. Lawrence Barnes, from the Los Angeles County Virginia Museum of Natural History Museum will be our guest lecturer. He is a leading Attn: Research Field Trips authority on fossil whales and will speak on the 1001 Douglas Ave. extinct cetotheres (i.e., a family of extinct filter• Martinsville, VA 24112 feeding whales). Trips will be cancelled unless 10 people have pre• July 9th, Saturday, SharkFest at the Calvert paid at least' one week prior to the trip, and after that Marine Museum. point no refunds will be offered. Schedules and itineraries are tentative. Trips may ~":athy Young ~ be cancelled due to inclement weather or lack of enrollment. The VMNH staff may retain rare
Club website: http://www.calvertmarinemuseum.com/cmmfc/index.html Club email: [email protected] 10 The Ecphora March 2005 specimens, with proper credit given to the collector, Grenda Dennis says she is still investigating for the VMNH collection. getting club T-shirts printed. Our club will be twenty-five (25) years old in· 2006! Does anyone want to start planning a special Ecphora to celebrate? Stephen Godfrey said he CALVERT MARINE MUSEUM would work with Kathy Young to assemble a special edition. FOSSIL CLUB MINUTES The club needs three members for an election committee. Bruce Hargreaves volunteered. From the February 19, 2005, Meeting Bob Platt moved for adjournment - and Grenda Dennis announced the meeting over at 1:35 The winter meeting of the CMM Fossil Club p.m. was held Saturday, February 19, 2005, in the Minutes submitted by Flo Strean. i:> Exhibition Building at the Calvert Marine Museum. The meeting was called to order by President Shark-Bite Coprolites ... Grenda Dennis at 1:00 p.m. The minutes of the last meeting were accepted as written in the last Ecphora. Stephen Godfrey showed and told about some small bones found in Calvert County. An incisor of a squirrel found by Pam Platt and a lumbar vertebra of a small land mammal found by Bill Counterman. The big whale skull will soon be moved from the exhibit building to the exhibits fabrication shop and be prepared to turn it over. The Museum's World Ocean Day is the same day as our club trip to New York. The new whale exhibit will open that day. Pam Platt is in the Sea of Cortez whale watching. Kathy Young gave Treasurer's Report. Bob Platt gave the Membership Report for Pam. There are 80 regular members, 20 life members, 5 museums, and 5 clubs receive our newsletter, The Ecphora. The Ecphora is sent to 104 households; 34 past members did not renew. Kathy Young announced that she and Bob Ertman would be our field trip leaders. She said Lee Creek Mine has offered our club 15 places for the spring collecting season. The club trip to NY will be in the Albany• Utica area on 11-12 June, and is about 400 miles from here. Fossils range in age from the Pre• Cambrian to Devonian. Crinoids, brachiopods and Herkimer Diamonds (i.e. Quartz Crystals) are among ~ the fossils and minerals you will have opportunity to Shark-tooth impressions in two coprolites frofl'•.• collect. Calvert Cliffs. Scan by S. Godfrey. © CMM 2005.
Club website: http://www.calvelt:marinemuseum.com/cmmfc/index.html Club email: [email protected] 11 The Ecphora March 2005
The shark-tooth impressions in the upper Editor's Column ~'prolite are clear and unequivocal. Those marking The lower specimen are not nearly as clear. I am looking for club members to exhibit 20 Nevertheless, they arch along the top of the fossil. - 25 of their fossils, preferably from Calvert Cliffs, immediately below the ruler. The shark bite broke in our club-dedicated exhibit case at the entrance to the feces along the raged edge that remains. Two the paleontology gallery. Your fossils would be on complete tooth impressions remain on the left-hand display for 4-6 montils. If you are interested, please side of the coprolite. The kind of animal that contact Stephen Godfrey at 410 326-2042 ext. 28. produced the feces that were then bitten by the sharks remains unknown. Both coprolites came to the Museum through the collecting efforts of Douggie Douglass, many thanks.
Stephen Godfrey P
Giant Eocene Bird Footprint Fossil
Here's a link, sent in by Bruc~ Hargreaves, to an interesting story in the Seattle Times about an ..-.amateur fossil hunter who discovered a footprint of I Eocene Diatryma (Big Bird) in the Green River area of Washington State. Apparently, the find generated a lot of debate as to whether the footprint was a fake.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/200 2110396 bigbird06m.html
Dinosaur fossil found in Mammal's Stomach
Paleontologists in China have identified the fossilized remains of a tiny dinosaur in the stomach of a mammal. They believe the animal's last meal is the first proof that mammals hunted small dinosaurs 130 million years ago. Learn more about this fossil find sent in by Sean Kery at:
http://abcnews.go .com/Technolo gy/wireS tory?id=40 ""-<"'724
Club website: http://www.calvertmarinemuseum.com/cmmfc/index.htrnl Club email: [email protected] 12 The Ecphora March 2005
CMMFC P.O. Box 97 Solomons, MD 20688
Calvert Marine Museum Library, Attn: Paul Berry P.O. Box 97 Solomons, MD 20688
. .. 2003 [email protected]@[email protected]/[email protected]@[email protected]@erols.comErtmanRobertYoungPlattNamesPamFloKathyGrendaChuckStephenSoares ...... President .. The Ecphora is published four times a year and is the PresidentElectedLeader*ChairpersonTreasurerEditor*FallVice-MembershipSpringSecretaryGodfreyYoungVolunteers*DennisStreanTrip Officers official newsletter of the Calvert Marine Museum Fossil Club. All opinions expressed in the newsletter are strictly those of the authors and do not reflect the views of the club or the museum as a whole. Copyright on items or articles published in The Ecphora is held by originating authors and may only be reproduced with the written permission of the editor or of the author( s) of any article contained within.
Editors Address: Stephen Godfrey Ph.D. Curator of Paleontology Calvert Marine Museum P.O. Box 97 Solomons, MD 20688 [email protected]
Club website: http://www.calvertmarinemuseum.com/cmmfc/index.html Club email: [email protected]